A technophile lawyer rediscovers the joys of pen and paper

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Multitasking, Shmultitasking!

I feel bad for multitaskers. Really, I do. I've been there. Tried to be one, anyway. Still there, sometimes. Closing the laptop just as I take a cell call and my desktop computer chimes to announce another email.

I just don't think its very effective. Sure, there might be some small sliver of the population that operates most effectively by using every tech gadget known to man, but I think that technology overuse probably makes most people irritable at best and anti-social at worst.

At the New York Times article "Hooked on Gadgets, and Paying a Mental Price," which reports on the consequences of overuse of technology, the picture of the husband and wife at the breakfast table, each absorbed in their own iPad, reminds me of the time I took a group picture of 5 or 6 family members on Christmas Day. Well, kind of a group picture. They were all sitting next to each other, several on the couch, one on each side in a flanking chair. But each barely noticed the others were there, for each person was staring intensely at the tiny screen of the handheld game he or she had pulled out of his or her stocking a few hours ago.

It was a posed shot, but we only got the idea because we came damn close to it without trying.

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4 comments:

  1. I agree anyone who says they can multi-task effectively is only kidding themselves by trying to cover for their own inefficiency and lack of attention--it is worse than the old saying "jack of all trades master of none." www.businesslawyerofmilwaukee.com

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  2. Ah but overuse of technology and multi-tasking are two different issues. One could multi-tasking without having six gadgets on the go.

    Technology issue - okay, I will grant you that.

    Multi-tasking, I think it does depend on people. I am a multi-tasker, and have always been so. I can't focus on one thing at a time for a long period of time. I get bored. Multi-tasking makes me more productive because it keeps me occupied by diversity.

    I will admit that I do try on occassion to focus on just one thing. It works for a short period of time. Sometimes for a few days. But it has not yet lasted for months. It just works against my natural order of things.

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  3. Dolly raises a very vald distinction, which I intend to give a post of its own. Thanks, Dolly!

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  4. hubby heard recently about increase in sunspot activity and how it was going to wreak havoc on our cell phones, etc. and the general concensus was, this could shut us down! technology has hurt us as a society, big time.

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